MAFS' Al Perkins reveals the truth about the dinner parties

EXCLUSIVE: Married At First Sight season nine star Al Perkins revealed how the show's dinner parties actually work and how long they go for in real life.

Video transcript

- So when I was watching the dinner party and I see the people sitting there and they're waiting for the door to slide open, I remember being behind that door with Sam, just hearing everyone's voices. We're one of the last people to walk in. And I was [BLEEP] myself.

I was so nervous. And I know exactly how they felt. When you meet everybody, it was really hard to memorize the names. Everything was going so quickly. Yeah, then you sat down, and you're just trying to like recap on what the heck is going on with everybody.

Because obviously, there's a few people having issues with their partners. You don't really listening to every single person. So they don't really know until you watch it on TV as well. So you're like, oh, my gosh, I didn't know that happened or that person had this issue in their relationship.

Yeah, I remember me and Sam were very nervous going into the first dinner party. And yeah, I had to break a bit of tension with the shoey. [LAUGHS] I didn't even plan a shoey. I never really do shoeys before that. I was just like-- I was, yeah. It was just such a spur of the moment thing.

And I just want to go in there and have heaps of fun. But I always thought in my mind what's the worst thing that can happen. You know what I mean? Like I don't want to be boring. I want to just chat [BLEEP] and just have a good time.

And that's exactly what I did. And yeah, I guess people liked me for it. Have no idea whether you're first or you're last. I don't know how they pick it or how they choose it, but it's done very well. You rock up, and then you wait in your couples for like an hour and a bit. And then you go in.

But everyone's different. Some people can go and wait for a half an hour and then go straight in. But I think you wait for a minimum like half an hour. They call it the cocktail party is when you first walk into the door. And it was having your drinks.

You're there for probably like, I'd say just over an hour, close to an hour or something like that. Maybe less. I don't know. I was pretty drunk most of the time. And then after, everyone leaves the whole room, and then they set up the whole dinner party section with cameras and things like that.

And then everyone leaves and gets separated. And then you do your interviews and what just happened. And then they'll probably be like, oh, so are you going to talk to or like I'm going to ask this person these questions. And you're going to probe this. And then that's when they probably start working out who's going to sit where.

And then they bring you back into the room. And then you walk into the dinner table. You walk into the dinner party and on the table. There's name tags. So you can see your names, and that's where you have to sit. From the cocktail party for an hour and then another hour of interviews, and then you go back into that room again, and then the dinner party goes for another, oh, [BLEEP] I don't know. Probably like three, or four hours, or something.